Technology, machines or AI going bad and coming back to bite humanity in its hindquarters is a popular trope in cinema, especially science-fiction. Pacific Rim was different. In that film, technology came to assist humanity in the fight against alien sea monsters emerging from a rift deep beneath the Pacific Ocean called the Breach. Humans fought against the Kaiju, as the monsters were called from inside huge robots called Jaegars.

While the film was hugely promising, it turned to be a mixed bag. It boasted a great cast and a director, Guillermo del Toro, who is singularly suited to handle monsters (his The Shape of Water has been dominating the awards season). But critics felt that somehow the movie was not as good as it could have been.

Enter Pacific Rim Uprising. First of all, thank heavens for the absence of the dreaded colon. Jokes apart, the threat of the Kaiju has risen again, and now the Jaegars have been upgraded. John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi) leads the cast, and sadly there are no Idris Elba and Charlie Hunman. Boyega plays Elba’s character’s son and would lead humanity’s assault against the Kaiju who are active again. The trailer sadly does not show much apart from lots of CGI fights in the fashion of Transformers, but let us hope the film is more than that. del Toro is not directing, but we can still hope the film will be good to look at, can’t we?

Here is the official synopsis,”The globe-spanning conflict between otherworldly monsters of mass destruction and the human-piloted super-machines built to vanquish them was only a prelude to the all-out assault on humanity in Pacific Rim Uprising. John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as the rebellious Jake Pentecost, a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity’s victory against the monstrous “Kaiju.” Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in the criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear through our cities and bring the world to its knees, he is given one last chance to live up to his father’s legacy by his estranged sister, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi)—who is leading a brave new generation of pilots that have grown up in the shadow of war. As they seek justice for the fallen, their only hope is to unite together in a global uprising against the forces of extinction.

Jake is joined by gifted rival pilot Lambert (The Fate of the Furious’ Scott Eastwood) and 15-year-old Jaeger hacker Amara (newcomer Cailee Spaeny), as the heroes of the PPDC become the only family he has left. Rising up to become the most powerful defense force to ever walk the earth, they will set course for a spectacular all-new adventure on a towering scale.”